Le « monstre de Cracovie » : savoirs, religion et politique dans la Cosmographie universelle (1575) de François de Belleforest
The “Monster of Krakow”: Knowledge, Religion and Politics in the François de Belleforest’s Cosmographie Universelle (1575)

Summary/Abstract: According to the common belief, a humanoid monster was born in Krakow in 1547. This creature thenceforth gained a certain popularity and has since been widely represented in naturalistic works, in works of teratology, in books of prodigies, and even in cosmographies. While this frightful figure is often used to denounce the persecutions against Protestants, the intransigent Catholic François de Belleforest inserts it into his Cosmographie universelle published in 1575. In his denunciation of Protestantism, Belleforest is often radical, occasionally becomes Manichean or even violent, and uses the new Imago Mundi as a weapon that serves his fight. His political use of geography is all the more effective as this book reaches a large audience eager to delve into such syntheses of recent discoveries about the world. In this article, I carry out an archeology of the engraving entitled “The Krakow Monster”. I explore the development and circulation of cosmographic knowledge as well as its denominational and political uses. It appears that Belleforest endows this engraving with a new meaning which highlights the eschatological and political anxieties through this pivotal period of the handover of power from Charles IX to Henry III.

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